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Home / New Zealand / Politics

Election 2020: Remutaka, where the MP is the Health Minister

Georgina Campbell
By Georgina Campbell
Senior Multimedia Journalist·NZ Herald·
6 Oct, 2020 04:00 PM6 mins to read

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Incumbent MP for Remutaka Chris Hipkins. Photo / Mark Mitchell

Incumbent MP for Remutaka Chris Hipkins. Photo / Mark Mitchell

Vote2020

The man who is the Health Minister, Education Minister, and State Services Minister is also running for another term as Remutaka's local MP.

Chris Hipkins acknowledges he's had a busy ministerial workload this term, but maintains he's still been an active and visible Member of Parliament.

The Remutaka electorate stretches from the Lower Hutt suburbs of Avalon and Naenae via Stokes Valley through Silverstream and Upper Hutt, to Kaitoke.

Since its creation in 1996, the seat has been a Labour stronghold.

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It was first held by Paul Swain from 1996 to 2008, and after him, Chris Hipkins, who has held the seat ever since.

Hipkins says the electorate work keeps him grounded.

"When you get out and about, even if it's just popping into the cossie club on a Friday night for a beer, you do realise that actually some of the things that happen in the political bubble barely register with people.

"They've got issues far more important that they're concerned about and it is important as a local Member of Parliament that you keep in touch with those sorts of things."

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In 2017 Hipkins secured a 8609-strong majority over National's candidate.

This year Mark Crofskey is running against Hipkins under the blue banner.

He's a former lawyer and grew up in the electorate, where he attended school and started a window washing business.

He says he knows Hipkins from their university days when he flatted with the Vice President of the Victoria University of Wellington Students' Association.

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Hipkins was the president of the association at the time.

"New Zealand is a small place", Crofskey says.

Crofskey currently doesn't live in the electorate, he lives in Wadestown, whereas Hipkins lives in Upper Hutt.

Yet Crofskey says: "There's a choice between someone who works in Remutaka every day and someone like Chris, who works in town."

He then clarifies he's been in the electorate every day since he was selected as a candidate.

National's candidate Mark Crofskey. Photo / National Party
National's candidate Mark Crofskey. Photo / National Party

Crofskey says he would move to the electorate "when" he wins but he doesn't want to disrupt the lives of his young family on a promise.

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He says his job along with his other National Party colleagues and candidates is bolstering the party vote as much as possible, so he's asking for two ticks blue.

"There is no such thing as tactical voting in Remutaka."

On the campaign trail National has promised to four-lane the road between Silverstream and Whakatiki St, including a new Moonshine bridge.

Crofskey says the road is a notorious safety risk and National would get the project underway as soon as it got into Government to the tune of $100 million.

"I get a little bit preachy about roads in Remutaka because it just needs to be fixed."

But Hipkins says a lot of promises get made around transport.

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"One of the things that I've tried to focus on in my time as a Member of Parliament are realistic transport goals that can be achieved.

"It's all very well to talk about building new intersections 10 or 15 years into the future, actually some of those intersections need work on them now."

He points to safety improvements at the Moonshine Rd and Whakatiki St intersections as examples of this.

Hipkins says he has also advocated for State Highway 58 upgrades, between Transmission Gully and Haywards Hill, which are currently underway.

Work on Transmission Gully.  Photo / Mark Mitchel
Work on Transmission Gully. Photo / Mark Mitchel

But Crofskey criticises safety improvements for being a "stop-gap mechanism".

Both agree housing is an issue for the electorate, particularly for the southern part.

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Hipkins wants to continue the focus on building more state housing in areas like Naenae, Epuni and Taita.

"More state houses means fewer homeless people", he says.

Crofskey points to National's promise to scrap the RMA so more homes can be built more quickly.

Listen to Newstalk ZB Wellington from 7.40am on weekdays leading up to the election or on iHeartRadio to hear from candidates across the region's electorates and commentary on the biggest issues facing the capital.

Chris Norton is running for the Greens. He lives in Naenae and works in the tertiary education sector.

He notes the issue getting the most headlines is housing.

"It's a problem, in particular the social housing area, that's been getting worse over the past five to six years."

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On transport, he says it's fortunate the current Government has funded the double tracking of the train line from Trentham "which is like 50 years overdue".

The main means of travel to work in the electorate is by train, with 13 per cent of employed commuters choosing that transport mode.

Norton is also concerned about how much water Wellingtonians are using.

"With the coming changes in the climate we can't necessarily always rely on steady rainfall on a year by year basis, so we need to think about how we manage out water."

New Zealand First candidate Talani Meikle. Photo / NZ First
New Zealand First candidate Talani Meikle. Photo / NZ First

Act is standing Grae O'Sullivan in the electorate, who is an IT professional born and raised in the Hutt Valley.

Like the Greens, he's asking for the party vote but thinks Act has the best plan for the Covid-19 economic recovery.

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His party's policies include a temporary cut to GST from 15 to 10 per cent and extending 90 day trials to one year.

O'Sullivan says one of the biggest issues in the electorate is housing affordability.

"Recently we sold a house in Upper Hutt and moved down to Taita and the house prices within a year from when bought in Taita are up 20 to 30 per cent, which is crazy."

Census data shows residential building consents have increased from 197 in 2016 to 383 in 2019, but it's not enough to plug the gap.

Talani Meikle is running for New Zealand First. She has worked as a ministerial adviser in Parliament for the last three years.

She says the biggest issues for Remutaka is a lack of serious investment in infrastructure and housing.

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"We need to build more houses and we need to have a robust plan around what that looks like in a practical sense."

She says mass immigration that previous governments have relied on economically is having a huge impact on people being able to get into homes.

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